Fury and Confusion (A Pokemon Fanfiction)

Chapter Fourteen

Lillie watched the orange clouds far beneath the falling sun, their reflections shimmering in the water far out to sea. To her side, Kukui was lecturing Hau about something – exactly what it was had slipped her mind. Koa was trudging through the sand, kicking his legs about and staring at ephemeral clouds he created with every swing, his large, fanged mouth hanging open with a childlike exuberance.

Her Pichu's ball shone in the dying light, the red and white of the standard pokeball starting to dull as sunset approached. In the far distance – up the mountain, probably – she heard the defiant screeching of a Toucannon, a faint sound nearly obscured by all the rest of the noise.

Swirls of clouds wafted faint and fleeting tendrils down towards the horizon, their ridges illuminated and obscured, off and on in turn, by the end of the daylight. The light weaved through the atmosphere, dragging the air behind it along as it descended. Far above she thought she could see small shapes dark to and fro, so distant that they were but specks between her and the brilliant sheen of the sky. They must have been bird pokemon, playing about with no care to consider but their own freedom.

She reached a hand up, her skin dark in contrast as she stared from down below. If only she could fly too, to join those pokemon as they darted and dashed in the cold and the bright and the wet of distant clouds. When she lowered her hand she noticed Koa staring up at the clouds too, his head tilted back as far as his short and stumpy neck would allow, his mouth clenched as if in protest of his own earthbound nature.

Bagons throw themselves from cliffs, risking death and permanent injury, just for that fleeting moment of freedom.

"Not unlike what I've done," Lillie walked to her pokemon, sitting cross-legged beside it, "and what I must do."

Gently she stroked the back of Koa's head and her pokemon turned to her, his eyes big and mournful. Lillie smiled at him, pointed one hand back into the air. He followed her gaze to those dark, darting shapes, still there, flying to and fro.

"One day, Koa," she promised him, "one day it's going to be us up there."

Her Bagon continued to stare, gazing at a dream far distant and long held.

After a while she stood, leaving her pokemon to his contemplation, and brushing the back of her pants down to get rid of the sand. Kukui was pointing out over the ocean, murmuring something to Hau as the boy nodded enthusiastically. She looked past the two of them, behind them where Ilima's house stood at the border of sand and grass.

Lillie felt her heart stop.

Ilima leaned in close to Acerola, his lips pressing against hers. The ghost-trainer looked shocked for a moment before giving in to it. One hand ran up his shirt, gripping tight near his collar as the two embraced. She felt the emotion all at once, less a wave and more a wall. There was a burst of confusion, of anger, then trepidation, and finally a quick resignation, all playing out in the back of her mind as she struggled to comprehend the scene in front of her.

After what seemed like forever, Acerola jerked away from Ilima, turning away suddenly. One hand was clasped to her chest, the other to her lips. She looked at Ilima with shock and betrayal. Lillie watched as tears came to her mentor's face quickly and suddenly, how she brushed away one almost in disbelief, before rushing into the house.

Ilima didn't as much as budge to go after her.

Lillie rushed up the beach, kicking up sand in her wake. She leaped up onto the porch, landing with a light thud on the thick wood. Ilima turned to her, his expression empty. Lillie tried to speak, tried to say something, but found she couldn't. She followed Acerola into the house.